By Allen Rausch |
May 14, 2004
The worlds of magic and science are in trouble again - but this time April Ryan's bringing two new friends to help her

Spiffy

Iffy

Cool new storylines, fully 3D world, great new characters

Will adventure game fans accept "action" elements, no matter how mild?

In a genre that's been a desert for far too long, Funcom's 2000 release The Longest Journey was more than just a cool drink of water. It was a virtual oasis, a magnificent achievement that nonetheless left legions of adventure game fans thirsty for a sequel. It's been a long wait, but at this year's E3, Funcom at last revealed details about Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, an action-adventure "spiritual sequel". I was one of the lucky few to get a coveted appointments with Funcom for a behind closed doors showing of the new game.

The first thing that Ragnar Tornquist felt he had to explain when we sat down for my demonstration was the appellation "action-adventure". "This isn't going to be Tomb Raider." he laughs, "but the game does take place in a fully 3D world and there will be some running, jumping and fighting." In fact, the game's action elements seem to be very mild. The game itself automatically does things like climbing, and the jumping and fighting elements are quite simple and don't require split-second timing or the reaction speed of a ferret on a double-espresso. According to Tornquist, the purpose of the change isn't to frustrate adventure game fans, it's to add a new sense of immersion into the world.

With that out of the way, Tormquist moved into the elements of Dreamfall that most gamers really want to know about - the characters and storyline. He began by discussing the characters. This time around, players will be controlling not just April Ryan, the heroine from the first game, but also Kiam, a soldier, assassin, and apostle of a mysterious new religion and the new main protagonist Zoe, a young woman looking for a purpose in life who's living in Casablanca when the story begins.

10 years have passed since the events of the original game and a new threat is disturbing the balance between Stark, the scientific Earth we live on, and Arcadia, an Earth where magic is the dominant reality. That, unfortunately, was the extent to which Tormquist was willing to divulge details about the story except to say that it Kiam's religious beliefs and an enormous new tower in the Arcadian city of Marcuria would be key to the new storyline - and that it would be a subtle commentary on what was currently happening in the real world.

Tormquist concluded his demonstration by showing us the game in action. The level he showed was a mysterious abandoned city housed in a cavern underneath Marcuria. Zoe was running around the city investigating the dead machinery of the city's inhabitants. When she needed to get up and out of the cavern, she utilized a mysterious glowing globe as a power source to get a wood and gut-cord bound water wheel to start working. One interesting element was that the squeaky wheel made almost musical sounds when Zoe turned it. When I pointed that out to Tormquist, he replied that yes, many of the puzzles in this area are musically based. He then got a dirty look from his PR person that said that maybe he wasn't supposed to talk about that.

The next area he showed us was the upper city of Marcuria. Marcuria is the largest city on Arcadia, the equivalent of New York City on Stark. Zoe had emerged from the cavern into The Journeyman's Inn, a location from the first game. Exiting the tavern, he entered the city. Marcuria too, looks mostly unchanged from the first game, although there was a simply enormous white tower that now dominated the city's skyline. It was this tower, I realized, that Tormquist had been referring to in his comments about the storyline.

Zoe was fairly free to wander about the city as she pleased, and while the game is unavoidably linear, the order in which she solves puzzles and pieces together mysteries is a little more open than the previous game. According to Funcom, Dreamfall is still 18 months from completion, but you can be sure that we'll bring you more information on it as soon as we can.